Anatomy of a pool

   I think I'll start at the finished product and then work backward.  The pool took about 8 weeks to complete but 3 of those were spent just waiting for the liner to be made. 

Of course its tempting to get in before the pool is full and some just can't resist...

I think we picked a good color... It reminds me of the Sea of Cortez... a very deep blue.  The pool deck is stamped and colored San Diego Buff.  It goes pretty well with the pool color. 

The pool is about 27 feet long, 12' wide, 6 feet deep at the deepest end and 3.5 feet deep at the shallow end.  It is about 8000 gallons volume and takes about 7 hrs to fill.

I poured a 10 x 22' slab in 5' panels to connect the house with the pool, put in a brick planter, left some cutouts for a future purgola.  All the drainage around the pool is channeled into an underground drainage systom that runs to a catch basin at the lower corner of the fenced area of the lot.  I also had time to do some landscaping and put in a 2 zone automatic irrigation system while we were waiting for the pool to be completed.  The pump, filters and solar heating system will be installed today.  The pool has 2 fountain jets and 3 jacuzzi jets installed on the bench at the deep end. 

So here's what the proposed pool area looked like in the begining.  It was already pictured in my head what would be here... It was just a matter of getting it done.  Unfortunatly our lot wasn't fenced so we had to absorb the additional cost of installing a block fence around the pool area.

While we were waiting for the contract proposal and permits to be approved I excavated 2 of the lot lines out by hand with pick and shovel and wheelbarrow to speed things up a little.  I also stripped all the gravel off the lot and stockpiled it for later use.  I had spent about 3 weeks on a design and layout for the pool and surronding area.  I have a transit so I topoged the lot and decided on a finish grade for the pool deck.  I like to look down at a pool so I decided on a 1 step down to the pool area from the house.  I also used the transit to lay out the lot lines and exact pool location so all that was done before the contractor began his work.  Once the contractor started it only took 2 days to excavate for the pool and the fence both and at the end of the 2nd day they were already laying block for the pool sides.

The block work is layed right on the ground in a bed of mortar.  There is no footing necessary because this is going to be a hanging wall, supported by  the pool deck slab.  The block work will be filled with concrete and rebar will exit the block work and bend over and be imbedded into the pool deck slab for support.

Also all  the plumbing work was done at this time and the light was installed.

So this is how we looked after backfill aroung the pool, note the progress on the fence going on at the same time.  We're about 2 weeks into the project now from ground breaking.  Next step they'll be pourning the pool deck.

Rebar is on 2' centers around the perimeter of the pool.

They use a styrofoam form at the inboard side of slab, it's preshaped for the curvature.

The concrete had to be pumped about 150' from the street side.  The color is added at the batch plant.  The pour took about 1 hour, the finishing, including seaming, stamping, etc took another 6 hrs. 

The inner form was stripped off at about 1 hr after the finish of the placing of concrete.
They put a release compound on the concrete and mat that they stamp with.  It's a rubber mat about 4x4'. 

I used a plastic trench drain for expansion joint between my concrete work and the pool deck.  I did my pours by hand with a small mixer and 60lb bags of premix concrete.  I kept the pours small so they were managable for 1 person.  I poured a total of 6 seperate panels plus some curbs for the brick planter.  Originally I was going to face the concrete with slate but decided that would get to hot in the summer heat here so now the plan is to just stain the concrete a contrasting tan to go with the pool deck color. 

Shaping the pool bottom with plaster sand, they really did a nice job here.

The liner is all one piece, computer designed and assembled to fit the pool shape exactly.

A shop vac is used to create a vacum behind the liner to suck it in tight to the walls.  It is left in place until the pool water level gets up to the vertical sides.

that all folks.....